Babies & bikes

This past week I have learned a lesson on dealing with babies, while trying to train on my bike. For my child and parenting development class at school, one of our bigger projects is having to take care of a computer newborn for a 24 hour period, that means it's on all night and all day long.  Not knowing what I was going into, I thought this was going to be a breeze…. Not so much.  Luckily you could set up "quiet times", where the baby won't cry for a certain period of time.  I had "quiet times" scheduled for Saturday and Sunday so I could get my workouts in. The first day I got the baby I was ecstatic and couldn't wait for it to cry so I could care for it.  The first time was alright, I fed the baby but, didn't realize they ate for 20 solid minutes! After the first cry they came in on a schedule; change the diaper, feed the baby, burp the baby (which usually took 40 minutes!) and change the diaper again.  This happened about every three hours.  In between the baby would start crying for no reason, for 5 minutes just screaming its little head off, I would have to pick it up in the middle of what I was doing just so it would be quiet! I knew it was going to be a long week after the first set of cries. Another thing I noticed is that they only cry when its inconvenient to you, like when I'm getting ready to ride or while I'm driving.  That night was the longest night of my life.  The baby woke me up THREE times!! I had a ride scheduled at 10am, I didn't wake up until 8:30am and that was also because of the baby. So running on about 4 hours of sleep I scrambled to get ready, loaded my bike on the car, strapped the baby in and took off.  I got to the ride at 9:45am, 15 minutes before we took off and my baby shut off.  At exactly 9:56am the baby decided he wanted to eat… against my better judgement, I ignored him and just left him in the car screaming.  I had to go ride and I wasn't going to let the baby stop me! So with one more day and night left being a "mom" I had already dropped the baby's head twice, locked him in a car, and started crying with him, it was a tragedy. Some people may laugh at this story, but it was not funny at the time! The next day and night went about as well as the previous had, long and torturous.  I ended up getting a undesired grade on the baby, so undesirable my teacher had me do the project over again two days after I had turned the baby in.  The second time was just as bad, but I did get a remarkably better grade. One thing I have learned from this assignment is having a baby, and training on a bike is nearly impossible. You aren't rested enough, and the stress it causes you is unbearable.  I give props to all those women out there, especially Pro women, who can handle having MULTIPLE children and training on their bikes.  You have to be a superwoman to do both, that's truly amazing.  Being 16, I'm lucky I won't even have to worrying about having child for a longggtime. Taking care of bikes are MUCH easier.

  

Eye Openers

This past week hasn't gone exactly as planned.  One thing about me that some of you may know is that I have a very high pain tolerance.  That's something that can scare me at times,  another one of my passions besides cycling is distance running.  I'm on my high school's cross country team and we practice every day after school.  Most of the time I have shin splints, so I just throw some RockTape on my shins, and ice after.  Recently I started to feel the pain intensify, not thinking anything of it I ran through the pain and didn't tell my coaches. It started getting to the point where I was having trouble putting any pressure on my right leg.  Reluctantly I told my mom and she made an appointment with the doctor for the next day.  As we walked into the doctors office I was beginning to get nervous,  I needed good news.  He sent me in for a X-ray right away.  When they came back the doctor told me I had a tibial stress fracture in my right leg… the first thing I asked was "Can I still ride?" after crying and begging for a few minutes the doctor said yes on one condition, NO intensity or climbing for a while.  I said okay knowing it could be worse.  With my first race being less then a month away, I knew I had to do everything it took to get my leg healed as fast as it could.  So that meant no pressure on my leg at all, icing at anytime possible ,and a lovely 20 pound boot for 6 weeks with crutches for a few.  I was heart broken, but extremely lucky to still be able to push a pedal.  I'm happy we caught the fracture early before it got any worse.  Stress fractures take about 6 weeks to heal, the first 4 is the forming of a soft bloody callus around the fracture, the next 2 the soft callus begins to harden, then the remodeling period begins.  Knowing exactly what was going on, the first 4 weeks are going to be very crucial in the healing process.  So no intensity or riding hills… base miles it is.  Luckily my first race, the Iris Stagner Memorial race in Mineral Wells Texas, its a good training race to get my intensity from.  A short few days after I leave for Valley of the Sun in Arizona, the first race on the NRC schedule.  If everything goes as planned ill be in perfect shape for VOS.  Even with my minor set back I'm still doing everything I can to accomplish my goals for this season.  If it takes icing my leg 5 times a day for 30 minutes each ill do it.  As much as it kills me to stay off hills I know I have too, I see a lot of trail rides in my future.

Pictures from JETCycling Team Camp

JETCycling Team Launch

         January 4, 2014 was more than just another day.  It was the beginning of an amazing year to come.  I knew it was going to be a big day for everyone, but I had no clue waking up how special that day was going to be.  You could tell everyone was so excited by the smiles on their faces all throughout the day.  My teammates and I couldn't wait to see all the support we have, and to meet some of our amazing sponsors.  A few hours before the launch we had a team meeting to go over what was going to happen later that night,  we were all so ready we couldn't even sit still.  As Jet was talking about everything that was going to happen, every one of our faces were lit up, I could barley contain my excitement for the night to come.

         We had a few hours in-between the meeting and the launch.  We got ready, loaded up the van and took off, the whole way to Bike Religion all you could hear was laughter coming from all of us.  When we got there, all of our faces were in awe.  The venue was perfect, everything from the beautiful lights strung outside, to the perfectly align chairs inside.  Bike Religion had set our event up for success,  and everyone knew it.  When you first walked in, you saw a table full of our amazing sponsored products, all being raffled off.  Before we knew it, it was time for the main event to happen.
           As Jet walked up to the podium, we all huddled into the little corner by the bathroom in Bike Religion. All the emotions you could feel were starting to set in, it was finally here, the big moment was about to happen.  In that corner you could find 11 excstatic, nervous and determined girls, ready to take on everything and anything coming our way.  We stood back there unable to control ourselves from laughing, there was a lot of "shushing" and finger pointing in those few moments we were corralled.  Jet started talking about our amazing sponsors that we would be no where without, they provided us with everything we need for success.  We were covered from head to rubber! We had our super fast, super stiff Felt bicycles, and our amazingly handy Orange Mud transition and seat wraps.  After about 15 minutes or so Jet began talking about our amazing, new, unlike anything else, U23 team!  Ivie, Brenda, Andrea, Alexa, Karen, Sara, Erica and Karla had all been announced and were presented with their brand new 2014 JETCycling jerseys produced by JLVelo.  After all of the U23 ladies were sitting down, it was time for our 15-18 team; Julyn, Jessica, Kenzie, Me and then Mille.  As everyone one of us walked out you heard screaming, clapping, whistling, even the sound of cameras flashing.  It was unlike anything else I have ever done, these people were all here to see my team, my family.  The screaming was kind of overwhelming at first, I was shocked to see everyone.  As I walked out the crowd was ahead of me and when I looked to my left there was my team, 10 amazingly talented, supportive elite athletes and I was one of them. When everyone was announced and got their jersey, we all stood up and put our hands in the air, the crowd went wild.
Words can't describe what I felt that night.  All I know is that if I could go back in time and do it again, I wouldn't even have to think about it.  The announcement was out, we're coming and trust me, we're not holding back.  We're taking everything this year, NOTHING is going down without our blood, sweat, and tears.  Tell everyone you know, JETCycling is coming, and you better be prepared.

A HUGE thanks goes out to ALL our amazing and supportive sponsors! Especially to Bike Religion for the spectacular venue, and all the help throughout the week!!

JETCycling Team Camp days 1-2

Hey guys! I'm down here in Irvine, California for my JETCycling team launch! These past two days have been crazy busy! I've met all of my AMAZING teammates, gone on some super fun group rides and got a whole bunch of our gear for this upcoming year. Some of the products we have gotten are, dznuts bliss (which I don't jump on my saddle without), brand new Swiftwick socks, bright green Rudy Project helmets and sunglasses, Rudy Project backpacks, Inov8 shoes, new JETCycling clean bottles and our amazing new super stiff Felt bicycles!    Not only have we been riding, but we have done a lot of team bonding exercises, factory tours and having some inspirational meetings.  With half of my team speaking spanish I have been trying to brush up on some spanish while amusing my spanish speaking teammates with my "white girl southern" accent.  We have all gotten to know each other very well these past few days and I'm super excited I still have a few more days to get to know them better! Today we visited the JLvelo clothing factory, which was SUPER cool getting to know how our clothing is made AND seeing how they are helping keep the planet clean with the green ways of making their clothing.  We also made a stop to take a tour of the Felt Bicycles factory, knowing how much work and time gets put into our bikes makes me feels so comfortable and safe on my Felt bike.  One thing that I can promise you is every single Felt bicycle that comes out of their factory is going to keep you totally, 100% protected and safe.  One of the coolest things that I have encountered down here so far is seeing our brand new TEAM CAR!! Mckenna Volkswagen down here in SoCal has definitely hooked us up!  The next few days are going to be extremely big for my team, and if your down here SoCal, and wanna help celebrate the launch of our team you definitely need to come down the the Bike Religion shop in Dana Point tomorrow at 7pm, its $5 to get in, $20 to get in and to get dinner and drinks, and $30 to get in, food and drinks, and a JETCycling/Bike Religion T-shirt that your going to be totally jealous of if you don't get one.  Its definitely worth the drive to come out and see our launch, 2014 is going to be a HUGE year for my teammates and I. I can guarantee you will be seeing us climb to the top step a lot.  We're all extremely determined to make an impact this year, and are planning on doing it! Its going to be an amazing year for the JET girls :)